visitation Jewel stayed in London for more than six months, during
which time he preached his Challenge Sermon, and also saw to the
publishing of the letters that he and Henry Cole exchanged on the
matter.^17 He departed for Salisbury only in May of 1560; though he
hardly hoped for an auspicious arrival.^18 On 7 May a bolt of lightning
had struck the cathedral spire, which according to Jewel, had left a
fissure 60 feet in length. Jewel was only too happy to hear about it
second hand, for, he writes Martyr, had he been there no doubt this
would have been blamed on him and his coming. Jewel consigns this
putative judgment to the peoples’ superstition, another way of describing
their Catholicism.^19 Whether Jewel had a peaceful life in Salisbury is hard
to say. He seems to have taken his episcopal duties seriously, going on his
first visitation as resident ordinary in November and December of 1560.
Apart from this he went on three other visitations, issuing injunctions
upon each, and was engaged in the fourth upon his demise in September
of 1571. By comparison, as Southgate points out, Richard Cox of Ely
has the record of but one visitation for his 21-year tenure.^20 Though,
unlike Jewel, Cox did serve on the High Commission.
Jewel’s years as the bishop of his diocese have been recounted and
described by Anne Whiteman and most recently by Scott Wenig.^21 Jewel
took an active lead in the administration of his diocese, though he faced
very much the same types of problems confronting other English bishops
at that time: a dearth of educated clergy in particular and just a shortage
of clergy in general, the recalcitrance of old mores and the repair of
ecclesiastical properties. His 1561 report to Parker on the state of his
diocese and its clergy reveals that of the 220 clergy 118 are listed by
Jewel as mediocriter doctus or worse; 36 of the parishes were legally
vacant, and another 54, at least, were under the care of pluralists. By
1565 Jewel’s partial visitation records note that of the 57 parishes in
three southern Wiltshire deaneries, 16 were vacant, while 24 reported
having no sermons. Jewel, as was not uncommon with Elizabeth’s
LIFE AS A BISHOP IN SALISBURY 209
(^17) The Trve copies of the letters betwene the reverend father in God Iohn Bishop of
Sarum and D. Cole, upon occasion of a sermon that he said bishop preached for the
Quenes Maiestie, and hir most honorable Counsel(London: John Day), 1560.
(^18) As conveyed to Martyr in two letters, 22 May and 1 June 1560. Works, IV, pp.
1232–33, 1235–36.
(^19) Jewel,Works, IV, pp. 1233–35.
(^20) Southgate,Doctrinal Authority, pp. 65, 74.
(^21) Anne Whiteman, ‘The Church of England 1542–1837’, in R.B. Pugh and Elizabeth
Crittall eds., The Victoria History of the Counties of England;A History of Wiltshire, vol
III (Oxford, for the Institute of Historical Research, 1956), pp. 28–56. Scott A. Wenig, The
Straightening of the Altars: The ecclesiastical vision and pastoral achievements of the
progressive bishops under Elizabeth I, 1559–1579(New York, 2000), pp. 138–53.